Dear Shah Rukh, your fans want you back where you belong

It is tough being an SRK fan these days. The star, whose off-screen charisma has been shinier than his screen outings over the last five years, has repeatedly tested his loyalists with persistent attacks on good taste and sensibilities. How else would you explain the string of projects such as Happy New Year and Chennai Express and now Dilwale? The last time he had a role somewhat worthy of his stardom and which was not as crushingly disappointing as his recent projects was Jab Tak Hai Jaan in 2012.

There is a reason why we choose to call these ‘projects’ and not ‘films’ because they are shameless and cringeworthy exercises in making the audiences pay up for a circus featuring a bunch of performing apes. There was a time when Shah Rukh Khan was a favourite performer at weddings. And the star would brush off the criticism in his inimitable style by saying, he needs to do that to make money and put his celebrity to some use other than endorse brands or the occasional causes.

But that certainly does not seem to be the case any more with the star who is one of the wealthiest Indian entertainers in the world. Look at the irony. Off screen, he has exhibited some fantastic business acumen by investing in the IPL and other ventures. HIs VFX studio is doing cutting-edge work. He has fathered a child at 47, and stood defiant in the face of hecklers and troublemakers both online and off it.

He is sharp, intelligent, witty and has the uncanny ability of staying in news even when he has no film or project to talk about and is still a role model for millions of impressionable young people who read invaluable life lessons in his story of success.

In the city of Bombay in fact, that boasts of landmarks that either belong to zillionaires or terror attacks, Mannat in Bandra is pilgrimage. For a boy who comes to Bombay with nothing but ambition and a girlfriend from a different community who he eventually married, to emerge as a name synonymous with the city and a crowd puller even when he is out on a routine medical appointment or just driving to his daughter’s performance, it is the kind of inspirational story that becomes stuff of urban lore.

And yet, he chooses to not just lend, but pimp his stardom, his calibre and his genius to the likes of Farah Khan and Rohit Shetty for reasons known best to him and the filmmakers.

The head says, he is trying too hard to be a Salman Khan. His ally, his colleague, his friend-turned-foe-turned-friend, who has made a career and fortune out of top lining circus acts. But even Salman khan seems to have mellowed and matured of late. Leaving the spot of the court jester to SRK.

The heart says, well, it may be all part of a bigger plan. He has Fan, he has Raees coming up and from the looks of it, it could be the films worthy of his stature and the love that his fans still hold on to.

Maybe, SRK, who has for some reasons best known to gossip columnists, not worked with Karan Johar since My Name is Khan, needs to get back to his buddy for a script that will put him back to where he belongs. Or maybe even Aditya Chopra. Because SRK clearly does not belong to the world of plastic flowers and toilet humour created by Rohit Shetty and Farah Khan. He belongs to the world of roses in spring-time Kashmir and tulips in Amsterdam, and smart punch lines that sparkle with wit. Since when did he need crutches in the form of Varun Dhawan, Sanjay Mishra or Sonu Sood?

They would like to believe that Happy New Year, Chennai Express and Dilwale were just one long con game played on unsuspecting viewers by the makers of the films. You know what, it was not even the real Shah Rukh Khan on the screen but a lookalike. Wherever he is hiding, SRK’s fans want him back.